JourneyWoman Magazine August 2026 Letter from the Editor: Inclusive Travel

Dear JourneyWoman readers:

When I took over JourneyWoman seven years ago, I had no idea what a treasure it was. I had a sense of what Evelyn had created, but I didn’t realize (then) the power of this community and the important role we, as women over 50, have to create positive change in our world.

Evelyn had big dreams for JourneyWoman. She put the building blocks in place with her honest, candid editorial, a Women’s Travel Directory to support women-owned travel companies, and a trusted place for women to share their most recommended products and travel tips. She was truly ahead of her time and it has been the greatest gift (and challenge) of my life to continue her legacy.

I too have big dreams for JourneyWoman — one of them is to create meaningful change in the industry. To do this, we need strong voices and passionate advocates. This is why I have invested so much in expanding our editorial team of professional travel writers from one (Evelyn) to represent diverse views and perspectives. Today, we have 28 talented writers who travel the world and represent their first-hand experiences with you as women over 50, 60, 70, 80 and even 90. Read about our talented writers here. 

Three years ago, I hired writer Tanzila Khan to share her experiences as a solo traveller in a wheelchair. Her articles have opened my eyes to the challenges women with disabilities face in hotels, public transportation, airplanes — you name it. Yet that doesn’t stop her from travelling. She’s overcome barriers to ride in kayaks, hot air balloons, even the Egyptian pyramids. In this issue, we are taking the first step to expand our coverage of accessible travel into ‘invisible disabiities”— and I need your help. In researching accessible travel, I learned that 1.3 billion people (or 1 in 6 individuals) live with a disability. Many of them (80%) are ‘invisible’ — things like blindness, hearing, neurodivergence, and intellectual or memory impairments.

For travel to be truly accessible to everyone, we must advocate for change. This starts with sharing what we experience, our concerns and our advice. In this issue of JourneyWoman Magazine, we seek to start a dialogue about making travel more inclusive while gaining inspiration from women who are making their dreams happen. This is just the beginning of what I hope will be a positive, healthy discussion, with your input and participation. I’m thrilled that our special guest on our next “Ageless Adventuress”  Travel Podcast will be Sylvia Lomgmuire, who travels with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Her story is included in this issue.

You may notice that there is a little figure on the bottom right-hand of our website now. This is new software that is meant to make our website more accessible. This interface allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs, including visual, cognitive, ADHD, blindness, and motor-impaired, among others.

In September, I’ll be hosting a panel at the International Women in Travel and Tourism Forum (IWTTF) in Utrech, the Netherlands, called “The Women’s Travel Revolution: Solo, Savvy and Unstoppable”. Renowned for its opinion-forming and progressive content on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) within the travel industry, the IWTTF Europe conference is themed “Inclusion Driving Growth” and there are some terrific speakers. If you can join me there, please do!

As always, thank you for your support, ideas, feedback and encouragement. I invite you to post your feedback on our articles, share your story and use your voice to help us create change. We’re also hosting a special zoom call on Wednesday, August 26 at 2 pm ET if you’d like to join us. Sign up here. We need you!

With gratitude,

CEO and Editor, JourneyWoman
editor@journeywoman.com